Disposable absorbent products, such as diapers, training pants, adult incontinence products, feminine hygiene products, and the like typically include some type of fastening system in order to fasten parts of the product together or to attach the product to the clothes of a wearer. In the past, various fastening systems on disposable absorbent products have been proposed including pins, ties, buttons, snaps, adhesives, and mechanical fastening systems.
For example, adhesives, such as pressure sensitive adhesives, have been used on diapers in order to attach the back of a diaper to the front of the diaper. Such adhesives have also been used on feminine hygiene products, such as absorbent pads, in order to attach the product to the wearer's underwear in order to maintain the product in a particular position. The use of adhesives, however, has various disadvantages and drawbacks. Adhesive-based fastening systems, for instance, may leave residue on the wearer's clothes, may stick to the wearer's hair and skin, can be moisture sensitive, and can be difficult to reposition without losing adhesive strength and other characteristics. Adhesives can also cause the products to stick to themselves and/or to other adjacent products.
In view of the above drawbacks, refastenable mechanical fastening systems such as hook and loop mechanical fastening systems have also been used on disposable absorbent products. Such fastening systems include a male component that is configured to engage a female component. The male component typically includes a backing material with a number of protruding hook elements. In conventional hook and loop fastening systems, the female component comprises a backing member having a plurality of loops that are engaged by the hook elements. For example, in one embodiment, the hook elements may include a base, a shank, and an engaging means in the form of a hook, a cap, a spherical/hemispherical shape, a flat top, etc.
Recently, microprotrusions have been used as the male component of a hook and loop mechanical fastening system. The microprotrusions, for instance, have a length of less than about 0.9 cm, such as from about 0.1 cm to about 0.001 cm. Such microprotrusions are capable of engaging most textile materials, in addition to loop materials, without the need of a specially shaped engaging means located at the top of the protrusions.
Mechanical fastening systems including microprotrusions are particularly well suited for use in feminine hygiene products. Such protrusions, for instance, are capable of engaging a wearer's underwear for maintaining the product in proper position. The underwear becomes the female component in the mechanical fastening system. Unfortunately, however, some of these mechanical fasteners can damage the underwear through unwanted engagement. This damage can take the form of abrasion, fiber put out, pilling, or snagging. Even when a single engagement of a component of the mechanical fastener system might produce minimal damage in the female component of the mechanical fastener system, multiple engagement of the male component of the mechanical fastener system might produce significant damage in the female component of the mechanical fastener system. This multiple engagement damage is especially important when one of the components is a durable (not disposable)—like underwear and the other component is disposable—like a feminine hygiene product.
There is currently a need to optimize engagement or maximize engagement with minimal system damage especially during multiple engagement usage when one component of the system is not disposable. One form would be a male component of a mechanical fastener that is not only capable of engaging a female component, but also minimizes damage to the female component during use of the mechanical fastening systems.